


In Your Eyes

by Unholy_Author



Series: ATLA! Keewing [2]
Category: The Adventures of Redwing (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, M/M, Relationship Negotiation, but overall it's fluffy I promise, discussion of anxiety and neurodivergency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unholy_Author/pseuds/Unholy_Author
Summary: Redwing and Keelio have been dating for a few months, ever since they first met after one of Redwing's probending matches. But after a very different match, it seems like their date might not go to plan.
Relationships: Keelio of Flats/Redwing
Series: ATLA! Keewing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2150403
Kudos: 2





	In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> For Syd, who continues to write complex characters I never tire of exploring.

Keelio had gotten used to the dull roar of the pro-bending arena over the past few months. He’d even bought a pair of earplugs specifically for Redwing’s matches, which he’d started to attend for his boyfriend even when his friends couldn’t make it. Honestly, he was considering getting a pair of earplugs for Redwing, too. Surely being in the middle of this all the time wasn’t good for him. Of course, the area that the benders actually fought on was detached from the bleachers and outer ring, which meant that they didn’t feel the same rumble in the stone that Keelio did when the crowd got especially passionate. 

Like now.

Keelio’s heart was in his throat as he watched the Weasel Snakes and Zebra Frogs go at each other with everything they had. _Again_. Their first match had only been remarkable in Keelio’s mind because it was the first one he’d seen. Goodness knew that there had been tons of matches since that had been more exciting, but none as nerve-wracking as this. Something had changed since the last time the two teams had gone against each other. The Zebra Frogs were more focused, more intense. Worst of all, however, they were devastatingly coordinated. It had always been a weakness of the Weasel Snakes that they were all incredibly individualistic. Even if they weren’t, Redwing had the incredible tendency of bringing out the worst in the people around him, and sometimes that came into play at the most inopportune moments.

“Come on, Bijo! I’ve seen grannies move faster than that!” Red shouted. Keelio didn’t imagine that the crowds around them could hear it, but from his own position in the team box Keelio got every comment with perfect clarity.

“Shut up, will you?” Bijo snapped, face twisted up as he ducked away from a series of discs from the opposing earthbender. Last match, the Zebra Frogs had been relying on raw power, and it had been working against most of the other teams they’d gone against. But something had changed in them since then. Not so much in the Weasel Snakes.

“You want to kiss me so bad, it’s honestly embarrassing, dude,” Redwing snapped back before immediately taking a disc and a stream of water to the chest one after another, shoving him back a zone and making Keelio flinch. The Zebra Frogs were capitalizing on every mistake and distraction on the Weasel Snakes’ side and while the last match had been fairly even, Keelio had to admit that it would take a miracle for the Weasel Snakes to win this.

“Oh, for—!” Redwing began, only to be cut off by Bijo.

“Let’s not add a sportsmanship foul on top.” Redwing looked like he was about to earn a sportsmanship foul against his own team when the buzzer sounded and they earned a much needed, if temporary, reprieve before the next round.

Hopefully it would give them time to regroup and pull through.

xXx

It did not. The Zebra Frogs won in a second round team knock-out, after which they congratulated the Weasel Snakes on a well-played match. Bijo took it all in stride, smiling as he shook their hands and complimented them on specific moments. Mink obviously just wanted to go get out of her sweaty clothes. And Redwing… was Redwing. Almost everything he said could have been taken either as a compliment or criticism, and in between tried to blame as much of their loss as he could on Bijo, whose smile was starting to twitch. By the time that they went back to their boxes and then to the changing rooms, everyone on the Weasel Snakes were varying levels of pissed. Keelio trailed along behind them as they argued and yelled at each other, frowning a bit. When they broke apart to change, he finally approached Redwing.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked gently.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Redwing said, as though the question was completely unwarranted and his voice wasn’t still slightly rough from how much shouting he’d been doing. “Did you try the snacks I told you to?”

“I’m being serious, you seemed really upset out there,” Keelio said a bit cautiously, eyeing the other man. Redwing blinked at him, then shrugged and started to strip out of his clothes. Keelio instantly whirled, face heating. He could hear Redwing’s low chuckle, but he luckily didn’t comment.

“We lost, of course I’m upset. But we’ve lost before and we’ll lose again. It’s not a big deal.” That was… not at all something that Keelio would have expected to hear Redwing say.

“Do you still want to go out tonight?” A pause in the rustling of fabric.

“Do I still want to go out tonight?” Redwing repeated incredulously. “Baby, I’d go out with you missing an arm and with half my intestines hanging out.”

“Um, gross.”

“And yet you adore me.”

xXx

Despite what Redwing said, he was still in a strange mood by the time they got to Kwong’s. He waved and smiled and winked at all the people who recognized him, held Keelio’s hand as they walked and flirted with him relentlessly, but something was… off. If he’d been asked, Keelio couldn’t put a name to what was wrong. He couldn’t explain it in any way that would have made sense to someone else, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Without Redwing or, really, anyone else acknowledging it, Keelio started to feel his anxiety creeping up as they sat down at their table (which they’d _actually_ reserved a few days ago).

Redwing hummed as he looked over the menu, apparently content to ignore the fact that he’d nearly lost his cool in the middle of a match, which he then lost. Not even taking into account how bad the match had been, Redwing had never handled losing very well. But now he was pretending like it hadn’t happened at all, and it was starting to make Keelio uncomfortable.

“I’m thinking darjeeling, but that seems a little light for dinner, doesn’t it?” Redwing asked absently, tapping a finger against his lips as he eyed the menu. A second passed and he glanced at Keelio, frowning slightly. “Kiddo?”

“Yeah, sorry, that sounds fine.” A young woman scrambled up to the table to ask for Redwing’s autograph, which he gave with a smirk and a compliment. Used to such occurrences, Keelio went back to his own menu, which he’d been staring at but not actually reading. Not that he needed it. He knew the menu by heart, but he needed something to focus on just then other than his steadily growing anxiety.

“Evening, sorry I’m a bit behind. Always full on match nights, you know,” Annie said with an apologetic smile when she came around to the table Keelio and Redwing were sharing.

“No problem,” Keelio said with a small smile of his own. “If you’re too busy or have angry tables, we can wait a little longer.” She scoffed.

“Please, I need to come see you guys or I’ll go mad. And you’re the only ones I know that won’t be angry at me no matter what I do. So, what can I get you guys?”

“Green tea,” Redwing said, “and cream buns.”

“Dessert first? A bold choice,” Annie said.

“Could you put our food in, too? With how many people are here, who knows how long it’ll take before it would go through if we put it in later,” Keelio said. Annie only nodded along, very well understanding the concern. He’d spent hours waiting after an ill-timed rush had come in before. 

“Of course, I’ll put a note to have it out as it’s ready so they don’t hold it thinking you want it all at once.” Keelio looked to Redwing, who was already watching him. A small crease between his brows. It cleared as soon as they made eye contact.

“I’ll take the turtle-duck stew, with extra bread,” Redwing said without looking away from Keelio. Keelio felt his face slowly heat until he finally turned back to Annie just to keep from turning red.

“Um, hot and sour noodles?”

“Got it. Anything else?” Annie asked.

“Hibiscus root salad,” Redwing said, making Keelio blink slightly. He’d been thinking of getting it, but was positive he hadn’t said so. Annie nodded again.

“Right, I’ll have that in and your tea out in a second.” As soon as Annie was gone, silence fell over the table once more, like an unwelcome houseguest that was getting way too comfortable. Not that Redwing had ever had any problem with being blunt and seemingly oblivious to awkwardness.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Keelio started slightly.

“Sorry?”

“You’re weird today. You have been ever since the match,” Redwing informed him, a frown pulling at his lips and that crease back in its place. He leaned forward, setting an elbow on the table and resting his chin in his palm. “I know I’m not super great at knowing what other people are feeling, or reading the room or whatever, so I’ve been trying to figure out what I did but I can’t come up with anything so you’ll just need to tell me.” There was a long, baffled pause before Keelio managed to respond.

“ _What?_ ” Okay, not his best moment, and certainly not the most eloquent response, and it only made Redwing’s frown deepen.

“Look, I know I’m all-knowing and sexy as hell, but even I need help sometimes. Just tell me what I did to upset you so we can have dinner.”

“You didn’t… what made you think that you’d done something wrong?” Keelio asked, leaning forward a bit and lowering his voice to ensure that no one else could hear. He’d never liked hashing out his personal life in front of other people, and that sentiment had only grown now that he was with Redwing, who was very much in the public eye and almost constantly subject to some sort of scrutiny. 

Redwing sighed loudly, rolling his eyes.

“Well, whenever Bijo gets quiet all of a sudden it’s usually because I’ve done something and he’s so mad he can’t even yell at me. Which is totally boring, by the way. I’d much rather you just yell at me, for future reference,” he added quite seriously. Keelio’s eyes widened and he leaned even further over the table, until the edge of it was pressing into his stomach.

“I am not causing a scene just to entertain you!” he exclaimed in a mortified whisper.

“Rude.”

“But,” Keelio continued, pushing through Redwing’s interruption, “I’m also not upset with you. I thought _you_ were upset.” Redwing raised an eyebrow, his frown turning into something more like a pout.

“Why would I be upset?” he asked, almost incredulously. Now, it was Keelio’s turn to be incredulous.

“You just lost a match to a team you’ve beaten before, and when you got out you and the others were all straight up yelling at each other. That’s normally a pretty good sign you’re mad. I haven’t been quiet because I’m mad, it’s because I thought you were.” A pause. A deep breath. “Do you remember when we first started dating and I told you I have anxiety?”

“Yes.” No elaboration or moment of realization, just Redwing watching Keelio intently. Genuinely listening, like he would for absolutely no one else. Keelio sighed. Sat back in his seat and folded his hands in his lap, fiddling with his fingers and the material of his pants.

“Anxiety is different for everyone, but for me, people being angry is… it’s the worst. Quiet anger is worst of all. I thought you were angry and purposefully not saying anything to me for some reason, like you either were mad at me or didn’t think you could talk to me about it. It made me feel awful and anxious.” Redwing nodded his understanding and laid his free hand on the table between them, palm up. After a moment, Keelio laid his own on top.

“Okay. I don’t get it, because I’ve never felt anxious in my life,” he said with a smirk that made Keelio laugh softly, “but I understand what you’re telling me. I didn’t know it would make you feel like that. I thought that it would be okay if I didn’t say anything, that you’d feel better if I wasn’t upset at all.”

“It’s okay to be upset,” Keelio said with a frown, looking up at the other man. “We’re dating, and you know that the last relationship I was in was super serious. I’m not expecting you to do anything because of how it was in my last relationship with Lilly, but that one lasted as long as it did because we trusted and talked to each other. I realized things were going to end when I realized that I was keeping things from her. That I didn’t care if I told her about my day, or what I was doing or feeling. I don’t want our relationship to start like that. I want you to trust me, to tell me when things are wrong.” Redwing nodded again, very seriously. For someone who didn’t give a fuck about anyone’s feelings, he was paying very close attention to what Keelio was telling him. It was making Keelio feel slowly, surely better. 

“You know, I think that’s the first time I’ve had somebody tell me they want me to talk _more_.” Keelio rolled his eyes.

“Well, you don’t need to go nuts.”

“Oh, no, I will. I absolutely will,” Redwing assured him, grinning.

“You could start by talking about it now,” Keelio hedged. Redwing hummed at that, seemingly considering his words and what he might say.

“You know,” Redwing began slowly, “I was really pissed off. We _beat_ them last time, and they were ridiculously different. They’ve obviously been putting in a lot of work, more work than we have, I can admit. And I was mad at Mink and Bijo and I was mad at myself but… I mean, we lost,” he said with a shrug. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We can only prepare for next time, so it doesn’t happen again. And I realized that when I came out with you. Literally just a few minutes walking down the street holding your hand and I wasn’t so pissed off anymore. I was just thinking about how much I wanted to get you hibiscus root salad, cause you always want it but you never order it for yourself cause you feel bad if you don’t finish it all, which is ridiculous when you have me eating with you,” Redwing added with raised eyebrows. Keelio stared at him.

“For someone who says they don’t understand people all the time, that was very thoughtful of you.” Redwing smirked, leaning back a bit but not letting go of Keelio’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m kind of the best. Let it go to my head.”

“I don’t think that would help anyone,” Keelio said with a snort, his entire body relaxing with the assurance that not only was Redwing not mad at him for something or keeping anything from him, but that he’d helped Redwing feel better. Even if he hadn’t intended to. Redwing only laughed at that, squeezing Keelio’s hand lightly. He glanced around the room and before Keelio could ask what he was doing, he leaned across the table and chastely kissed Keelio before sitting back down like nothing had happened. Keelios’ entire face was on fire.

“Wh-what was that?” he stammered out.

“I know you don’t like causing scenes, but I couldn’t help myself. Oh! Tea and buns are here,” he said happily just as Annie walked over, setting down a tray with a tea set for two and a plate of cream buns. Redwing beamed at her before snagging one with his free hand and eating half of it in one go.

“Thank you, Annie,” Keelio said, and she bustled away to her next table with slightly flustered promises of their food coming soon.

“Do you think if she sleeptalks that she asks people if their food is okay?” Redwing asked.

“You really are in a better mood, aren’t you?” Keelio asked dryly as he poured his tea.

“Don’t complain, you love me.” Keelio had just taken a sip and choked on it, only barely keeping it in his mouth and needing to cough several times when he did manage to swallow it. “Dude, are you good?”

“Fine, fine,” Keelio wheezed. “Just… uh…”

“Oh, the L-word. No worries if you don’t want to say it, I was just kidding,” Redwing said with a wave of his hand. “We’ve only been dating a few months, I get it. But I love you, so… you know, do with that what you will.”

“You _what?_ ” Keelio nearly shrieked, face a brilliant crimson. He shrank down in his seat when several people looked over at them curiously and Redwing pouted unhappily.

“Oh, but no scenes for my amusement, huh? Honestly, babe, now you’re just being rude. Now help me eat these buns or I’ll get fat.”


End file.
